Red, amber and green explained

The UK's birds can be split in to three categories of conservation importance - red, amber and green.

Red is the highest conservation priority, with species needing urgent action. Amber is the next most critical group, followed by green.

Please refer to our PDF download for the full list of red and amber categorised species (see link).

Birds in the red and amber lists will be subject to at least one of the relevant factors listed below. Again, a full list of criteria can be found in the PDF download (see link).

Red list criteria

Globally threatened

Historical population decline in UK during 1800–1995

Severe (at least 50%) decline in UK breeding population over last 25 years, or longer-term period (the entire period used for assessments since the first BoCC review, starting in 1969).

Severe (at least 50%) contraction of UK breeding range over last 25 years, or the longer-term period

Amber list criteria

Species with unfavourable conservation status in Europe (SPEC = Species of European Conservation Concern)

Historical population decline during 1800–1995, but recovering; population size has more than doubled over last 25 years

Moderate (25-49%) decline in UK breeding population over last 25 years, or the longer-term period

Moderate (25-49%) contraction of UK breeding range over last 25 years, or the longer-term period

Moderate (25-49%) decline in UK non-breeding population over last 25 years, or the longer-term period

Rare breeder; 1–300 breeding pairs in UK

Rare non-breeders; less than 900 individuals

Localised; at least 50% of UK breeding or non-breeding population in 10 or fewer sites, but not applied to rare breeders or non-breeders

Internationally important; at least 20% of European breeding or non-breeding population in UK (NW European and East Atlantic Flyway populations used for non-breeding wildfowl and waders respectively)

Green list

Species that occur regularly in the UK but do not qualify under any or the above criteria

Introduced

This is not a conservation status category, but indicates a species that has escaped and bred in the wild or has been deliberately released into the wild at some point in the UK's history. As these species are not native to the UK, they have no specific conservation status here.